Exterior

Aerocool's Strike-X line of products is known for it's flamboyant military styling paired with a red and black color scheme. It only takes one look at the Strike-X GT to see that it carries this theme with gusto. The styling of the Strike-X GT is very gamer-centric, with prominent X's featured on the front panel and top fan grille. The locking knobs on the tool-free drive retainers have also been molded into an X-shape, then coated in a bright red metallic shade. The rear PCI slot covers are finished in the same color, lending some nice contrast to the stealthy black paneling. The top panel comes equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 port, and the customary mic and speaker ports. The ports are flanked by two red LEDs for high visibility. The left side panel features a row of small cutouts. Given that the openings of these cutouts are only 1.5mm wide, we question their overall contribution to airflow. A set of folding plastic feet are meant to give the tower a confident stance, and folding plastic handles ease removal of the side panels.

Judging by appearances, the Strike-X GT looks well built, with any plastic paneling blending in nicely with the steel chassis. But our opinion of the build quality changed when we actually handled the case for ourselves. The 0.6mm SECC Japanese steel construction is lightweight, but also rather flimsy. The side panels did exhibit some flex, and we managed to find a few loose seams. The side and top panels are held in place by plastic clips with expanding heads that could be prone to breaking. Our review unit actually came with two of these clips already broken. Deploying the plastic feet didn't add favorably to our impression either, as they did more to unbalance the case than stabilize it. Given the fact that this was a review unit that had been previously evaluated, these findings could be attributed to mishandling during shipping or by another reviewer. Needless to say, we were a little hesitant to take a closer look at the inside of the case given the defects we found in the exterior. The Strike-X GT is based on the same core chassis as the VS-9, which exhibited none of the external flaws. It's partly because of the added plastic bezel, but the feet work marvelously on the VS-9, so we're surprised it isn't working the same with our unit. These findings suggest our test unit may have been beaten up by previous testers or multiple trips on our friendly UPS or Fedex trucks, but it's without a doubt that the plastics are brittle, and the tabs are precarious.